International Childfree Day

Guest Author - Patricia Pedraza-Nafziger

On August 1, 2013, the first International Childfree Day (ICD) celebration begins. Does the date sound familiar? This is the same date used for the now-defunct Non-Parents Day initiated back in the 1970s by a nonprofit organization called National Alliance for Non-Parenthood (NAOP), which was active between 1972 through 1982. The intent of NAOP was to educate the public on the childfree lifestyle and why individuals make the choice not to be parents. Several decades later, a group of childfree advocates, Laura Carroll, Marcia Druit-Davis, Eric and Patricia Nafziger, and Lance and Amy Blackstone, collaborated and reformulated the concept behind NAOP in an effort to pick up where NAOP left off.

To initiate the celebration, these sponsors ran a contest for Childfree Man and Woman of the year, and on August 1, 2013, the sponsors ran a press release via their website announcing selected winners to represent International Childfree Woman and Man of the Year. The honors go to Jennifer Thorpe-Moscon, a research director from Brooklyn, New York, and Théophile de Giraud, a writer from Belgium.

Jennifer Thorpe-Moscon utilizes her childfreedom to do great things. She received her PhD in social psychology from New York University and works as a research director at Catalyst, a nonprofit organization dedicated to changing workplaces and changing lives. Jennifer’s research involves expanding opportunities for women and businesses. She is the author of How Geek Girls Will Rule the World, intended to motivate women to overcome patriarchal views of what women are expected to do with their lives. Whether it is for writing hard science fiction or computer programming, she inspires women to follow their passionate geeky dreams. Jennifer is actively involved in childfree communities and has publically advocated that flextime be available for the childfree as it currently is to parents in the workplace. She is involved in activism and politics regarding reproductive-choice issues. Jennifer is simply an inspiration for all women, and the sponsors of ICD Woman of the Year commend her for all her efforts.

Théophile de Giraud is childfree for ecological, philosophical, and personal reasons. He has organized courageous events with the purpose of educating people on childfree, pronatalist, and population-related issues. One such occasion was on the streets of Paris, where he initiated a public debate and discussion amongst participants. Théophile has also assembled gatherings to celebrate the childfree lifestyle, including “Non-Parent Feasts.” One of these feasts was held at a very popular establishment in Brussels and featured French author Corrine Maier, who wrote 40 Good Reasons Not to Have Children, and Magenta Baribeau, who produced the documentary “Mom? No Thank You!

In addition to assembling European childfree events, Théophile is also an author of various pronatalist-oriented topics, including a dark humor book on the “The Cult of Procreation” and an “Anti-natalist Manifesto” (available in French language only). He uses social media as an avenue to reach other childfree individuals worldwide, and he provides an environment for them to express themselves freely about childfree issues. He dedicates his life to childfree causes and uses creative ways to help others understand the choice to be childfree.